Basement workshop #5: The pour

Well finally after 18 months after we moved into our home I now have part of the basement with a concrete and more importantly flat floor… I am not sure what I am going to do now as I won’t be use to it.

The truck arrived 15 minutes early… which caught us off guard as my helpers were still on the way… but the irony was when I joking to the driver he said “the other job they had for that morning, they were late… lol”

The pour went smoothly though it was a bit of hard work as we had to barrow around the house and down paths etc etc… however the driver was inpressed how quickly we did it. Especially when he came down after and had a quick look. He was impressed.

5 comments so far

Been there done that! 6 years contruction work as a concrete guy. Even had to barrow a basement one year, truck pulled up to the garage door, slung the chute over to the open stairwell ( no drywall at the time) and into a “fleet” of barrows, three being a fleet, right? Full basement floor,had to hold off on the last few yards of mud, while we bucket-brigaded all the water up out of there. Next day, it was still steamy down there, almost a fog.

IF you used “High early” next day walk around on it. Most floors take at least 7-14 days to almost fully cure. One can drive on the stuff after 14 days.

How thick was the pour? Are you cutting in control joints? Expansion around the edges? Inside pours are the best kind, I didn’t have to worry about ….rain, or snow meesing things up.

As a long a term contractor I have been on lots of concrete pours and it sure makes a big difference to have a good concrete truck driver . I’ve never liked finishing concrete inside a enclosed area but folks that do concrete all the time can do it very quickly. Good luck on the rest of the process,your getting close now.

Wow! It’s a lil late now, but, it woulda been good to put a plug for your table saw in the floor if you knew where it was gonna live. A friend o mine did that in his garage/shop years ago when first built. Good luck with the rest of the build. It’s always nice to see stuff come together.

The last time i did a concrete basement floor, I mixed all the concrete by hand and did it in strips. I was younger then and had more energy but it suited the budget at the time and gave me a chance to think about logistics and efficiency and ensuring I got the preparation just right – cause I sure wasn’t going to do it again!

Congrats on the pour. Keep it wet and covered and you’ll have a floor for life…

But it is exciting cause now I can start to really plan and do things. I am starting to frame the inside which is tricky as I am trying to keep as much space as I can… but the piles are well house piles and lets say it makes it interesting :-) but I have a plan and it should work…

Framing with all recycled wood that I have scrounged and will go get some H3 Ply to clad… :-)